Just One More Payment!

Ken Stearns has been telling the same joke for decades!  Having driven the same truck for almost 50 years, a truck he calls “MORT” (My Old Rusty Truck), people often ask him why he is still driving it, and his answer is always the same, “I just have one more payment!”  Of course, that is just a joke, but what isn’t a joke is the story of this amazing man, his family, his ingenuity, and his awesome Kenworth W900A log truck that he purchased brand-new in 1975 as a glider – and he is still running it today, every day!!

Being a third generation log trucker, Ken’s roots go back to his grandfather, Roy J. Stearns, who started logging in the Hood River area of Oregon in the 1930s.  Back then, he had one logging site, a few log trucks, and he floated logs down the center of the Umpqua River and nobody said a word (you can’t do that today).  Ken’s father James L. Stearns (Jim) dropped out of high school and joined the Army.  While in the military, Jim met Ken’s mother, Lena Mae.  After WW-II the two got married and moved to South Bend, WA and Jim started hauling logs.

After working for a few companies for a while, Jim got his own log truck and started running all over Long Beach, South Bend, and Naselle in the southwest corner of Washington.  In 1960, they moved to a town called Humptulips, WA (yea, you read that right), which is just north of Aberdeen.  Running his own company called Stearns Logging, Ken’s father grew to be a pretty big outfit with two logging sites, four log trucks, construction equipment, a sawmill, and two or three dump trucks.  At one point, he employed 45 people.  Later, when he decided that he didn’t want to do all that anymore, he sold out and went to work as the service manager at Kenworth Northwest in Aberdeen, WA in 1972.

Born in 1947 in South Bend, WA, James K. Stearns (Ken) grew up around the logging industry and log trucks.  Truth be told, everyone who lived in that area either worked directly or indirectly for the logging or fishing industry, and Ken was no different.  When he was a senior in high school he broke his arm, which meant he couldn’t write or type, so he just dropped out!  Meeting his wife Vicki in high school, the two got married in 1966 while Vicki was still a junior in high school – she was 17 years old.  Ken had a new car at the time, and since they lived on the outskirts of town, he would let her take his car to school and he would hitchhike to work.

Driving a log truck for someone else, Ken has always been industrious.  While Ken was working at this company, they bought and took delivery of the very first hydraulic log loader.  When it got delivered, nobody knew how to operate it, so Ken jumped in it and said, “I can do it!”  So, the boss backed a log truck to the loader and told Ken to do it.  After successfully loading the truck, the boss went to Ken’s company log truck, grabbed his lunchbox and thermos from it, handed it to Ken, and said, “You’re hired!”  Ken ended up running that machine for a while.

Wanting to go out on his own, Ken bought his first truck in February of 1973 – an old used plain Jane B-Model Mack log truck with no frills.  This tiny truck had no A/C, no power steering, and no power windows.  Upgrading the drivetrain himself to a 400 Big Cam Cummins and a 13-speed Roadranger transmission, Ken kept this truck until 1975, when he ordered the Kenworth W900A seen on the cover, centerfold, and these pages.  He pulled that drivetrain out of the Mack and installed it in the Kenworth, which was ordered as a glider with a short hood, and with a unique and rare factory paint scheme.

Now, here is where the story gets kind of complicated.  No, not really, just kidding.  Ken’s story is not complicated.  Not being a man that jumps from job to job or from truck to truck, Ken is a firm believer that if you take care of something, it will last a very long time.  Here are a few examples.  Ken and Vicki got married in 1966 – they are still married.  Ken and Vicki bought their property in Hoquiam, WA in 1969 and put a modular home on it in 1974 – they still live on that property in that house.  Ken bought his log truck in 1975, and 49 years later, he is still driving it – every day!

Not one to leave anything stock, Ken has made a lot of modifications to his Kenworth.  Over the years, it has had at least four different engines and three transmissions.  One of the major modifications occurred when Ken dropped a 6-speed Allison automatic transmission in the KW during the mid-1980s, which he kept in it until two years ago, when he installed an updated Allison 6-speed automatic in it.

Why did he go with an automatic – especially when nobody was using them?  Well, when he was a kid, at around ten years old, a man pulled into their yard with a brand-new 1957 gas-powered Chevy log truck.  Powered with a Buick engine that had a whopping 185-hp, this truck also had an Allison 6-speed automatic.  Later, Ken drove this Chevy log truck for his dad, and he liked the transmission, thinking, “There’s no reason this can’t be in a big log truck.”  So, when he had the chance, he made the switch, and to this day, he still loves it and does not regret it, saying, “Some things just take time for people to accept and get used to.”  And now, 40 years later, these automatic transmissions are just starting to be popular and somewhat accepted.

Some other things he has done to his log truck include installing a drop axle with a vertical shock absorber, which makes it ride much better, installing a leveler-valve in his air seat, making it height controlled, back when that was not even a thing (they all have them now), and making his own “hands free” cell phone.  When the first cell phones were introduced, the “bag phone” was a popular model from Motorola.  Ken took his “bag phone” apart and installed all the guts up in the overhead console where the music radio would normally be, then added a 40-watt amplifier, and then mounted an amplified external antenna.  Back when reliable service was hard to find, Ken had service everywhere – except in tunnels!  Later, when cell phones got small, he fashioned a holder with an external microphone and speaker that hangs above his head.

After driving the Kenworth for 25 years, the original aluminum frame rails were cracked and all the plumbing and wiring was rotten, so in 2000, he freshened it all up and completely rebuilt everything in his own shop.  Replacing the aluminum frame rails with new steel versions, Ken also decided that he wanted to have a long hood, so he bought a new hood and made the switch.  To accommodate that change, he had to move the cab back 12 inches, and he also modified the back of the fiberglass front fenders, extending them down further, and then repainted the truck in the same colors and with the same scheme in Mercury Brown Metallic, School Bus Yellow, and Safety Orange, with that “signature” arrow on the sides of the hood.

During the rebuild, he moved the engine back four inches, the radiator back two inches, installed a charge air cooler, added stainless air cleaners with lights, 11 new cab lights, a new drop visor, and made his factory rear window, which came with a hand crank, electric.  He also made the side windows electric, installed electric wiper motors, added 11 vertical grill bars, and installed a tilt/telescopic steering column out of a 1989 KW cabover.  To help monitor his automatic transmission, he mounted a gauge to the top of his hood cowl, on the outside of the cab, which he can see through the lower left corner of his windshield.  That gauge has a high pressure oil hose attached to it, and if it was mounted inside and failed, it would make a huge mess in his cab, so he mounted it outside.  This guy is smart.

Today, the truck is powered by a Cummins N14 Celect Plus, and estimating conservatively, Ken thinks the KW might have at least 3.5 million miles on it.  And almost every mile was put on by Ken himself, except for a short time around 1990, when things got tough, and Ken pulled the logging gear off the KW, mounted a fifth wheel, and let his cousin drive it, hauling wood chips for about a year.  During that time, Ken got hired by a man to build race cars for him, and he loved it.  With a racing background of his own, it was a fun year for Ken, but after that, he was ready to get back to tree trucking.

In 2014 Ken installed a Pittsburgh Power Box, made by our friend and contributor (The Performance Zone) Bruce Mallinson.  Ken loves the box, with its “dial up” horsepower and seven different levels, with each one adding about 25-30 horsepower, but he typically just runs on Power Level 3, unless he needs to pass someone.  Like I said, Ken doesn’t like to keep anything stock – and that goes for his “toys” too.

One of those “toys” is his wife’s 1954 Chevy pickup.  Painted Lemon Ice Yellow, this little hot rod truck features a small block Chevy 327, an automatic transmission, air conditioning, a tilt steering wheel, electric windows, and a bunch of other custom modifications done by Ken.  This project took four years to complete.  Another one of his “toys” is a miniature version pickup truck of his Kenworth W900A.  Ken got the idea to build a mini big rig pickup back in the 1970s, but it wasn’t until about ten years ago that he actually started to build it.

Starting with a 1983 GMC 1-ton dually chassis, Ken found a cab just like his A-Model, and then extended the back of it eight extra inches for more leg room (he would love to do that to his log truck, as well, but doesn’t want to shut it down to make the change).  He also re-purposed the original short hood off the W900A, which was highly modified, and then used on this pickup.  Powered with a 5.9 Dodge Cummins with twin turbos, methanol injection, and a Dodge automatic transmission (which he does not like), the truck was also fitted with a 2000 Ford F350 bed.  Painted Lamborghini Orange, it took about seven years to complete this project, and Ken did 98% of the work right there in his shop (everything but the paint).

A few other “projects” he has lying around include a few “hit and miss” engines from 1917 and 1923 that he likes to play with, along with a 1961 Kenworth S-Model 925 conventional, that he is in the early stages of rebuilding.  Being a somewhat rare model, there aren’t many of these floating around, but they did build a lot of them in Australia, so Ken might need to look “down under” for the parts he’ll need – or just make his own parts!  He bought a donor truck for some parts, and he is currently rebuilding the truck’s original 335 Cummins engine, but he still needs a few other parts and accessories.  Not surprisingly, he plans to install an Allison 6-speed automatic in the truck.  Ken estimates that this project will take between two and three years to complete, but he is in no hurry.

I mentioned earlier that Ken had a history in racing, and that was a passionate hobby for him and Vicki from 1976 to about 1992.  Starting out on local dirt short tracks, they did that for a few years, and then began racing in the NASCAR Northwest Tour, racing on asphalt, in the Late Model class.  They did this purely for fun, and built everything themselves, including the cars, motors, suspensions, and other parts.  Ken drove the race car, along with the hauler, and everything was self-funded.  Racing against heavily sponsored opponents, they had some success, typically finishing in the top five, and winning a few championships along the way, as well.  They had a lot of fun, met a lot of great people, and got to see a lot of neat places, so they have no regrets.

After Vicki graduated from high school, the couple had their first child in 1968 – a son named James Edward Stearns.  Eddie (55) works in the logging industry and runs a log loading shovel.  Their second child Nicky was born in 1970, but, sadly, she died from H1N1 (the Swine Flu) around 2010.  Their third child, a daughter named Valerie, was born in 1971.  Ken made sure they all graduated high school (unlike him).  Growing up, Valerie liked spending time with her dad in the shop over shopping or doing other girlie activities and became a bit of a tomboy.

Valerie married Jed Boles in 1998, a local log trucker, and the couple had a son named Chandler later that same year.  Unfortunately, tragedy struck in February 1999 when Jed was involved in a fatal accident in his log truck at the age of 33.  Chandler was just eight months old at the time, so he never knew his dad.  But these days, at 27 years old, people tell Chandler he is exactly like his dad.  After Jed’s death, Ken became a father-figure to Chandler and was a big help and supporter to both his daughter and grandson, as they moved on with their lives as best as possible, but it wasn’t easy.

In 2000, when Ken was rebuilding the Kenworth, Valerie was dating our past cover trucker Josh Sanaski (January 2019), so he was hanging around the shop a lot at that time.  He helped Ken with some of the truck rebuild, and later, when he built his own rat rod Peterbilt, painted it with the same “arrow” scheme, but in different colors.  Tragically, Josh passed away suddenly in November of 2019.

Growing up, Chandler loved hanging out with his grandpa, and he had toy trucks all over his room.  To this day, he still enjoys building truck models and custom painting them.  After high school, he went to work at a rock pit, and eventually started driving a dump truck.  Not too long ago, he decided that he wanted to get his CDL and start log trucking, so his mom helped him pay for the driving school so he wouldn’t be indebted to a company and be stuck working for them for years.  Before the classes were set to begin, there was a two or three month period, so Chandler went out with his grandpa to learn.  Ken was hard on him, for sure, but Chandler appreciates everything he taught him.  Now driving a five-axle 2018 Kenworth W900B with a 2-axle trailer for Clint Pascher out of Olympia, WA, Chandler is officially the fifth generation in the family to drive a log truck.

When asked about her thoughts about her dad, Valerie said, “He’s the hardest working man I know, and he doesn’t have an ‘off’ button.  Waking up early and going to work is all he has ever done, and it’s all he knows – it is second nature to my dad.”  When Chandler was asked for some thoughts about his grandpa, he said, “Grandpa taught me that if you take care of the things you have, they will last forever.”  Chandler was not able to be at the photo shoot with us because he had to work, but he drove by a few times, and always made sure to honk his horn.  He also was the one to polish the truck and help his grandpa get it ready for the shoot.

Valerie has fond memories of the old A-Model and told a story about how when she was little, she used to swing on the two safety chains that hang below the stinger hitch.  Those chains were her swing set, and she’d swing on them for hours, and never once hit her head on the truck frame.  One day, Chandler would like to inherit or buy the Kenworth from Ken, then fix it up and take it shows, so he can tell stories about his grandpa and the truck he drove for 50 years.  Until then, he has hopes of one day buying his own log truck and going out on his own, following in the footsteps of all his forefathers.

A typical day for Ken starts at around 2:15 AM, and if he’s home by 3:00 PM, he calls that a short day.  He normally hauls between two and four loads a day and drives on average about 350 miles a day.  He wanted to thank his wife Vicki for being his biggest supporter forever, and always being by his side.  At 77 years old, Ken Stearns plans to keep driving until he no longer wants to do it, or his health will not allow him to, but for now, he still loves it.  Driving old MORT for all these years has been a real pleasure for Ken, and as soon as he makes that one last payment, maybe he will be able to start thinking about slowing down.  But for now, get out of his way, because he has logs to haul!